The spectators formed a circle around Jimmy and Aatrox. Jimmy held a smug on his face imagining his victory before it happened, while Aatrox held a stoic face while the corner of his lips started to arch upwards into a foreboding grin.
Analyzing the sword he grasped in his hand, Aatrox rubbed his index finger over the blunt edge of the blade. It has been a long time since Aatrox had sparred with another person. When Aatrox wielded the Darkin Blade he could only follow the blades hunger for blood and slay his enemies to quench its thirst. Now, holding this training weapon he felt a freedom he didn't before. Even though this training sword couldn't match to his Darkin Blade, he had full control over its use. Aatrox could easily fracture someone's bones just by beating the blunt blade into their skin.
"I will grant you the honor of knowing who you lost to today. I am Jimmy Smith, currently the fourth-best under-18 duelist in the state. With your weak body, I only need to use half of my strength to beat you. " Proclaimed the muscular blond-haired boy Jimmy Smith. He turned his face towards the audience with the grin still on his face, expecting them to be applauding his speech in infatuation and compliment him on his awesomeness.
The audience answered his expectations with a string of compliments being thrown towards him.
"Maybe the boy can last longer than 30 seconds since Jimmy isn't using his full strength." Yelled a boy in the audience.
"Even if Jimmy only used a tenth of his strength, this boy wouldn't last 30 seconds." Said another boy.
Listening to the blasphemy spouting out of the audience's mouths Aatrox began to lose his temper. 'Mere mortals daring to mock a God-King. If we were in my old world, such blasphemous words would get you hanged. Not even gods would dare to say such words in front of me. ' Aatrox cursed in his head.
For someone who killed beings at the peak of the cultivation world and the God-Emperor himself. The mocking of mere mortals sounded like the irritating whaling chirps of a murder of crows belittling the pride of a mighty dragon that didn't even fly on the same air as such meager creatures. Such an act ignited Aatrox's pride that he forged in the endless battlefields he littered with corpses.
"Let's see if you'll be able to maintain that arrogance after our fight." Aatrox pledged as he hid his boiling emotions behind his poker face.
The old man went between them and started the battle.
Jimmy who was ready to go up suddenly froze on the spot. He looked at Aatrox in front of him, who grasped his sword with both hands at the side of his body, as if ready to lunge. At first, he found his stance ridiculous, but only when Jimmy went looking for some opening to attack did he get surprised. No matter where he looked, there were no openings at all.
A minute passed and neither of them moved. Aatrox still kept his face neutral and didn't look like someone partaking in a fight. Jimmy, however, was feeling restless. If he was wearing skin-tight clothing, the audience would see the sweat dripping down his back as he faced a predicament he'd never been in before.
At first, the other disciplines thought it was just Jimmy giving Aatrox a chance, but seeing the frown on Jimmy's face deepen as Aatrox's face remained unfazed, they realized something was wrong.
'Fuck, his weird stance doesn't have any openings.' Jimmy thought as he rashly advanced to attack.
Jimmy's sword slashes flew towards him from multiple directions, looking for any loophole in Aatrox's defenses to exploit. As they came within the range of his sword Aatrox effortlessness parried them to the side before suddenly arcing his sword past the short distance towards Jimmy before slamming the blunt sword onto his dominant arm, forcing him to drop his sword onto the ground.
"Jimmy !!!" The disciples shouted as they worriedly ran towards his kneeling body. Their concern towards their fellow injured student turned into anger that was directed towards Aatrox.
Everyone was bad-mouthing Aatrox since he injured Jimmy. Except for Xayane, who when everyone was talking bad about Aatrox she pitied him since he alone was being harassed by 20 people. But seeing the strength he showed, she realized he wasn't being arrogant with her earlier, he was just telling the truth.
The old man who was refereeing the duel was surprised that Aatrox could easily control the movement of his disciple sword with only the tip of his own. He knew that the tip of the blade is the hardest part to accurately manipulate on a sword. But while he was shocked, he suddenly heard a loud thud and a clanging sound as one of the swords fell on the ground. Quickly, he ran to his student, carefully picking up his arm to see if it was fine.
Looking at Jimmy's arm, the old man flushed with anger. From the loud noise made when the sword hit his disciples arm, the odd angle Jimmy's arm was bent at and the rapid speed that the arm swelled at, the old man believed Aatrox had intentionally broken Jimmy's arm.
"That was just a friendly duel. Tell me one logical reason for you to use all your strength in one attack to cripple my disciple." Said the old man with a dominating tone as he looked at Aatrox demonstrating that if he did not give him a compelling reason he would attack him here and now.
Seeing the old man's anger, Aatrox understood why the disciples were so disrespectful. 'No snake egg will be born a chicken.' He thought.
"I'm sick off hearing such bullshit, from his flaunting earlier I didn't think he was going to be so weak." Aatrox said as he looked at the old man with a face that said "So, what are you going to do to me?"
"Master, allow me to teach a lesson to this worm who doesn't know his place!" Said a tall boy among the disciples.
"Yes master, if it's senior brother John he can avenge senior brother Jimmy." Said a 'plump' disciple who looked like he hadn't done any exercise since he left his mothers womb.
"Senior Brother John, teach this idiot a lesson!". The group of disciples shouted together.
"Show him that Bahamut Dueling School cannot be taken lightly!"
...
Hearing this Aatrox no longer felt angry. He realized that they were just a colony of ants that relied on their superiors to fight their fight for them.
Hearing that their Dueling School's name was Bahamut made Aatrox almost burst out laughing. That huge dragon-like being could destroy this planet with just one sneeze, while these mortals are comparing themselves to him, what a joke.
"Do you dare accept the challenge boy?" Said the old man.
"You already sent an ant and it lost an arm. Don't send a spider and end up crying when it loses its' arms." taunted Aatrox lazily as he no longer wanted to argue with these mortals.
The students did not understand the analogy, but the old man and the boy who challenged him understood and were enraged.
"Let's see if you dare call me a spider after this duel boy." John said.